Unscrupulous
by Susan Hilton
Summary: Just for his own amusement, the Q transports Captain Christopher back to Kirk's Enterprise along with Rasmussen and encourages them to swipe a few items from a less observant original series crew, thus permanently altering history. A sequel to "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and "A Matter of Time" Please review
1. Chapter 1

Unscrupulous

Chapter One

"Suppose an unscrupulous man were to gain certain knowledge of man's future. Such a man could manipulate key industries, stocks or even nations, and, in so doing, change what must be..." -Spock

Author note: Since nobody has physically gone to Saturn yet, in this story, Spock will be wrong about Captain Christopher's son going there. In this story, it will be his grandson who goes there.

The year was 2050. The son of Colonel Sean Jeffrey Christopher had inherited his grandfather's property, including a mysterious sealed trunk. His father, who had been killed in a traffic accident, had never revealed to him what was inside the strange box. He only told him that it was something unique and not of this world, and gave him instructions on a piece of paper on how to open it before he died. The instructions were now handed to the colonel's son, who was also an astronaut like his father, by their family lawyer during the playing of his last will and testament. Now, the box was in the possession of Sean Christopher Junior. Not very curious about its contents, he had the trunk stored away in the attic of the house he had inherited. It was a large house; almost a mansion, for his father the colonel had been rather wealthy. He had acquired his wealth by getting lucky at the stock market, investing in computer technology and high tech and amazing gadgets, that were now in wide use in many fields.

Sean Jr. turned the key inside the ancient keyhole to his inherited house, thinking to himself how lame this old technology was. In the house where he had lived before this one, one gained entry by touching a hand on a sensor pad. It was one of many inventions that his grandfather had dreamed up. Sean quietly opened the door and stepped into the old house. The dark wooden floors creaked as he walked on them, but he wasn't worried. The old house was very well maintained, and there was no danger of falling through the floor boards or anything like that. As he made his way into the spacious foyer, the television switched itself on in the living room, and Sean heard the voice of his deceased father. He was startled at first, but then realized it was just a recording, probably set to go off when he stepped inside his acquired property. As he made his way into the living room, he stepped over to the TV to shut it off. As he did so, he was stopped in his tracks and knocked on his butt by a force field, another one of his grandfather's creations. Sighing but unhurt, he got up and plopped down onto the luxurious leather sofa, which was covered by a dusty off-white sheet. Just for fun, he punched it with his hands and watched the dust fly into sun beams streaming through the living room French door faded blue curtains. His father's voice droned on until Sean heard an unusual inquiry from his dead father on the television screen.

"I trust you are having fun playing with the dust, son." Sean's eyes widened. The image of his father smiled at him, his blue eyes sparkling with amusement. "Don't be shocked. I know you very well...or, I must say I knew you very well. Now that I probably have your attention, listen carefully. If you bring the trunk down from the attic and open it, its contents will make you as wealthy as they made me. The items inside come from the distant future, but you must not tell anyone that. In my will, I also had Cedric my butler leave before you finally got around to entering your new house. He knows nothing about the box or its contents, and he doesn't need to know. What's inside is yours to do with what you want, but you must keep everything you find in it a secret. That is very important, son. In the near future, if someone comes knocking on the door claiming to be the actual owners of the property in the box, tell them you don't know what they are talking about and get rid of them in any way you can. Oh, and by the way, good luck on your mission to Saturn. Take care, Sean. I love you." With that, the screen went black. Sean sat there for a few moments, awed by the fact that his dad also knew that he did not possess the curiosity they had and had stored the box in the attic. Finally, shrugging it off as coincidence, he stood and walked to the stairs that led to the second story of the house. He climbed them slowly, knowing that there was also a stipulation in the recorded will that said that only as soon as he opened the trunk, the property would be officially his.

The attic was dustier than he had expected, and as he opened the door, he sneezed. As his eyes grew adjusted to the decreased light, he found the box, took out the instructions from his pocket, and opened it. What he saw surprised him, and he began to wonder if his dad and grandfather had had a few screws loose. Inside was a neatly folded gold and black replica of a Starfleet uniform and props from the original science fiction show he had heard about all his life but never watched. There was a phaser, a communicator, a tricorder and some kind of scanning device that resembled a salt shaker. There was also a computer printout of all the gadgets that would be invented in the next two centuries, and their blueprints. As he saw these, he began to wonder if the devices in the box were really props at all.


	2. Chapter 2

Unscrupulous, chapter two

The Q was bored. One day, he decided to alleviate some of his boredom by creating a black hole near the lonely outpost of Star Base Nine while visiting the twenty-third century. He knew that Kirk would soon encounter it and that he and his ship would be propelled backwards in time to the twentieth century. Kirk was always fun for the Q to mess with, and he knew that the captain would be labeled a menace by Starfleet Temporal, even though the Q was the main culprit for Kirk's many time travel mishaps. The Q also decided to have some fun with Captain Christopher, the local primitive Kirk had to beam aboard the Enterprise when the ship's tractor beam crushed his airplane. He knew how disappointed the airman had been when he found out from Kirk that he would not remember anything about being aboard the starship Enterprise. The Q rather liked Christopher's personality and he decided to pose as his long time friend, Commander Webb, after the real Webb had detected the ship as a blip on his radar when it appeared over the Omaha installation. The real Webb had moved on to bigger and better things, through the following years forgetting about the day he detected a mysterious blip on his radar scope. He had long ago dismissed it as a glitch in the machine's programming. However, Captain Christopher, who was now a Colonel and just a few weeks away from retirement from the US Air Force, never forgot about the strange UFO he saw in the sky, nor could he forget the fact that the Air Force considered it worthy of investigation. As the years progressed, the Q, posing as Webb, contacted Christopher by phone, telling him that the UFO he had seen over Omaha was really the starship Enterprise. At first, Christopher thought his old friend had lost his marbles, knowing full well like everyone else that the starship Enterprise was from a long dead science fiction TV show. However, when he started to think about it, the UFO he had seen had borne a striking resemblance to the fictional space ship. The media had gotten wind of this and had contacted him about an interview for "Unsolved Mysteries". Christopher found it a bit silly, but, in recent years, people were becoming more and more tolerant of supposed UFO sightings and it was becoming more acceptable to report any such strange occurrences. So, at last he relented, thinking it would be just something amusing for the public to enjoy. However, a few days after the first interview with the media, two men dressed in black came knocking on his door, ordering him to cease and desist talking about the event that occurred in the late nineteen sixties, telling him that there would be dire consequences if he did not comply. Christopher found them to be a bit strange and menacing, but he was not about to follow the orders of complete strangers. After all, he had the Constitutional right of free speech and was not about to be intimidated by a couple of weirdos in dark suits and sunglasses. Months after he told the story, though, he was summarily dismissed from the Air Force with no explanation and was denied his retirement pension. Despondent, he decided to kill himself. His wife tried to console him, telling him that it must be some kind of horrible bureaucratic mistake, but deep down he knew that it was he who made the mistake and should have heeded the men in black. The last thing he remembered before waking up on Kirk's ship was downing several sleeping pills.

The Q had considered that bringing Picard's ship back in time, as much as he enjoyed his great speeches, would have created too many variables in the time line. There were many more people on the Enterprise-D, and that would create an even bigger problem. The radar devices in the twentieth century would have had no problem picking up the much larger ship as it lumbered through the sky. As he thought of Picard, the Q smiled as he also thought of Burlingoff Rasmussen. The Q had been the one posing as the time craft's occupant, whom Rasmussen thought he had killed. Of course, the Q wanted him to steal the craft, just so he could have some more fun watching the dismally unsuccessful twenty-second century inventor as he masqueraded as a history professor and tried to palm some items from Picard's ship, only to be caught by Data. _"That darned android!"_ The Q thought. _"Always such a kill joy. However...he did save my life once." _The Q paused for a moment, and then decided to give Rasmussen another chance.

Burlingoff Rasmussen had just been released from jail, and had been exiled on Nimbus Three, the "planet of galactic peace". As he sat in a booth inside a local eatery, something familiar caught his eye. At first, he thought he was seeing things. He shook his head, closed his eyes and took a sip of his lukewarm coffee. When he looked again, the ship he thought had vanished forever on Picard's ship was still there, resting quietly in the parking lot. Looking around furtively, hoping that nobody else was noticing, he made his way out of the restaurant and approached the time ship. Cautiously, he touched it, feeling the warmth of the outer hull. It was real all right. He walked to the entrance and touched the door panel. As he climbed in, he saw the alien he thought he had killed at the controls.

"Good evening, Rasmussen." Q said with a smile. "Don't worry. I'm not mad at you for trying to kill me. I have a proposition for you. I will return you to the twenty-second century where you belong if you do me a favor and rescue a certain twenty-first century senior citizen from a starship in the twenty-third century and bring him back to his own time. When you are there, you will have the opportunity to pilfer some items from good old NCC 1701."

Captain James T Kirk had just completed a diplomatic mission to the Gorn home world, where he had successfully presented a peace treaty with the lizard-like creatures that had attacked Cestus Three. It was early in the morning when he stepped out of his quarters on deck five and nearly tripped over the supine form of a much older version of John Christopher. The man was dressed in pajamas and appeared to be asleep and oblivious to everything. Concerned and puzzled as to how the former airman could possibly be on his ship again, he felt for a pulse. Not finding one, he immediately called McCoy on the nearest wall intercom.


	3. Chapter 3

Unscrupulous

Chapter Three

James T. Kirk watched with intense curiosity and puzzlement as his chief medical officer worked on their unexpected guest. The captain never thought he would ever see John Christopher again and his mind was full of unanswered questions: How did he get on the ship? The Enterprise was nowhere near Earth or Star Base Nine, and the black hole that nearly destroyed their ship in the past year had mysteriously and inexplicably disappeared. Why was the twentieth century airman here and how did he come into this time frame? Why was he in pajamas and why was he unconscious? Kirk knew that McCoy could possibly answer the last question.

First Officer Spock had been summoned from the bridge soon after the discovery and after the much older version of John Christopher had been whisked to sickbay. Upon entering the room, the Vulcan raised an eyebrow as he contained his own astonishment when he recognized the new arrival. Even though Christopher appeared to be at least forty years older than he was at their first encounter, he was still recognizable.

"What is his condition, Doctor?"

"He's out of danger. I managed to purge his system of most of the sedatives he ingested." McCoy answered, looking as puzzled as the captain. "It was close, though. He almost died."

"Sedatives?" James Kirk asked with concern. He rather liked Christopher when he was first aboard their ship and couldn't imagine him trying to do himself in.

McCoy nodded in the affirmative. "Yes, Jim. There is every indication that Mr. Christopher tried to kill himself. He ingested a large amount of doxylamine succinate, a powerful antihistamine. It was also a common sleep aid in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century."

"Why would he do that?" Kirk asked impulsively.

"How should I know?" McCoy responded gruffly, then composed himself. "You can ask him when he wakes up in about six hours."

"Bones...could he have remembered what Spock said about him not making any relative contributions and got depressed about that?"

"That is unlikely, Captain." Spock said. "Although depression is a possible motive for attempted suicide, all his knowledge of our existence was erased when we used the slingshot effect to turn back time and used the transporter. He probably does not remember us at all. Something else must have triggered his suicide attempt."

Nurse Chapel had quietly entered the room as they were speaking. She peered at their new patient with interest and also with a certain amount of curiosity.

"I know why he tried to kill himself." She interrupted softly, still staring at their new arrival.

The two men looked at her with surprise.

"How would you know, Miss Chapel? This man is from the twentieth century." Kirk asked, watching as McCoy waved a small medical scanner again over the new patient.

"It's in our family history. He was my great, great great grandfather. He lost his job when he told the media that he saw a UFO. Soon after that, he vanished for a couple of days." She smiled a little. "The mystery of where he went has finally been solved." She shook her head in amazement. Time travel was still such a new thing they were dealing with, and she found it incredible that she was actually going to get to talk with one of her ancestors.

"Fascinating." Spock responded, looking into her deep blue eyes. She certainly could have some of Christopher's DNA. "Doctor, can you verify that? Do you mind, Nurse Chapel?"

"Not at all, sir." She answered with another little smile. McCoy smiled back, adjusted the scanner for DNA readings and waved it over John Christopher and then at the head nurse.

"Confirmed." He said with astonishment. "Even after several generations, Miss Chapel has some of John's DNA. However, there are several mysteries yet to be solved, such as why he would be here and how he got here."

"Mr. Spock, I also must tell you that you were inaccurate about his son going to Saturn. The early twenty-first century had not yet developed that kind of technology. It was his grandson, Sean junior who went."

McCoy grinned.

"Wow, another historic occasion!"

"I stand corrected, Nurse." Spock responded with a sigh. "Now the question of why he is here and how he got here must be answered."

"Agreed, Mr. Spock." Kirk nodded in agreement, following Chapel's gaze.

The Q vanished from sight, but not until he gave Rasmussen some instructions on who he was going to rescue from the original starship Enterprise. Christopher had long been Burlinghoff's childhood hero, even though most people he knew thought he had made a fool of himself on national television in the early part of the twenty-first century. He found it incredible that he was actually going to meet the man, and while everyone else thought Christopher was nuts for believing that he saw the Enterprise in the sky, Rasmussen secretly believed him. Soon after the Q being vanished, the ship took off, and Rasmussen found himself right in front of the Enterprise. He had never completely mastered the intricacies of the time travel controls, so he had no hope of setting them to his own time so he could get home and leave Christopher where he was. He really didn't want to do what the alien had asked him to do. He wanted to go home. He sighed and then thought this might be fun, considering this time frame was still over a hundred years past his era. He frowned as the sensors on his time ship indicated to him that the starship's shields were immediately raised. Apparently, his appearance startled them. He then considered that the raising of the shields might be standard procedure, being he appeared from out of nowhere and they didn't know whether he was friend or foe. Rasmussen thought that they were both lucky that the Enterprise was not traveling at warp speed, but was at impulse, obviously in no particular hurry to go anywhere. He was given instructions by the Q that he should pose as a time traveling historian like before when he was aboard Picard's Enterprise and that he should tell Kirk's crew that he was there to pick up Christopher and bring him back to his own time. This was no big stretch for Rasmussen, for while he was incarcerated, he had honed his skills at lying and thievery.


	4. Chapter 4

Unscrupulous

Chapter Four

The Enterprise was on yellow alert because of the sudden appearance of the mysterious alien craft. Kirk, still in sickbay and mystified by the appearance of a much older version of John Christopher, strode to the nearest wall intercom as the klaxon sounded. Spock had left Lt. DeSalle in charge of the bridge. He considered him a logical choice, for he was a natural leader and a capable helmsman, who seemed used to dealing with the unknown.

"Bridge, this is the captain. What's with the yellow alert?"

"DeSalle here, sir. We have encountered some kind of alien ship. It's not answering to Uhura's hails."

"I will be right there. Take no provocative actions and have Uhura keep trying to hail them in all known languages and frequencies."

"Aye, sir." DeSalle tried to keep from sounding nervous. He was not as confident as the first officer thought he was, but knew how to keep a calm exterior in tense situations. This sudden appearance rattled him, but he did not let it show. Also, considering that whoever or whatever was aboard that alien ship could he hostile, he wasn't the only person on the bridge who was nervous. Bailey at navigation was trying valiantly to not show that he was scared. He was still a little embarrassed by the way he had acted the last time they encountered an unknown alien craft, the lone occupant using a gruesome- looking puppet and empty threats to find out more about them.*

Kirk switched the com channel to security.

"Security, this is the captain. I want a guard posted in sickbay immediately to protect Mr. Christopher from a possible alien threat. Also, post a couple of guards to the bridge."

"Security chief Humbolt, here, sir. Johnson and Garrovick are on their way to the bridge. I will post Lt. Joseph to sickbay."

"Very good. Kirk out."

DeSalle was inwardly glad that Captain Kirk would soon be on the bridge. First contact situations always made him anxious. He glanced at Bailey.

"Bailey, have you tried to scan the interior of that craft?"

"Yes, sir. Sensors won't penetrate the hull. The ship is made of something that deflects communication signals."

"Sir!" Uhura interrupted excitedly. "They are finally answering our hails! In English!"

"Put them on screen." DeSalle ordered as Kirk entered the bridge. Garrovick and Johnson trailed behind him. They took a stance of readiness at the bridge doors. They all watched in astonishment as the face of a human being appeared on the main viewing screen. DeSalle kept his eyes on the image as he relinquished the captain's chair to Kirk. Bailey breathed a little sigh of relief as Sulu looked at him with amusement. The image of a middle-aged balding man appeared on the main viewing screen.

"Hello, Captain Kirk." The occupant of the alien craft greeted with a smile. "I didn't mean to startle all of you, but I am with Starfleet Temporal. They are testing this new ship technology, which was given to us by an advanced culture from the twenty-ninth century. Is Mr. Christopher all right? We have been quite concerned about him."

Kirk sighed. He had dealt with Starfleet Temporal before. He didn't like the way they made such a big deal out of all his time travel excursions.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Burlingoff Rasmusson, sir." The occupant of the time ship answered smoothly. "Mr. Christopher was about to be abducted from his bed in the twenty-first century by a bunch of Greys. They were about to dissect him, but we caught them and transported him to your ship before they could harm him. We figured he would be transported to one of our secret bases on twentieth century Earth, but something went awry with our time transporter. I am here to take him back home. May I come aboard?" Rasmussen was inwardly quite proud of his made-up story and he could see the people on the Enterprise bought it.

"Yes, of course. Stand by." Kirk flipped the switch to the transporter room. "Transporter room, lock onto the alien ship's occupant and beam him aboard."

"Sir, this is Kyle. We are unable to lock onto his coordinates. Something is interfering with the signal."

"I heard that." Rasmussen interrupted softly. "I have a transporter device of my own. I will beam directly to your bridge."

"Never mind, Kyle." Kirk said, watching with astonishment as the man who called himself Rasmussen materialized right in front of him. The two security guards at the bridge entrance tensed up and took their phasers out of their holsters and set them on stun.

Rasmussen smiled, noticing them. "I am unarmed and not here to hurt anybody, sir. I am just here to rescue Mr. Christopher. As you know, he doesn't belong here. Where is he?"

"He's in sickbay, recovering from a suicide attempt, Mr. Rasmussen."

"Oh, yes, of course. It is a pity that he would try to take his own life. We at Starfleet Temporal have been trying to figure out why he did that for years. I am an historian, sir. I am one of many who are employed by Starfleet Temporal. My specialty is the late twentieth century and early twenty-first."

Spock had just stepped onto the bridge and he raised an eyebrow.

"Indeed. That is interesting, considering that the reason was obvious. Whoever was in charge of Earth's men in black had him fired from his job after he exercised his right of free speech by telling the media about his supposed encounter with a UFO."

Rasmussen thought quickly.

"We at Starfleet Temporal believe there was another reason why Christopher tried to off himself. May I see him?"

"After he recovers, sir. Sir..." Kirk added, becoming a little concerned that the man who called himself Rasmussen had been the lone occupant of the time ship, if that is what it was. "I'm curious. How are you going to get back to your ship once you have completed your rescue mission here?"

"My ship's computer has a fail-safe device built into it which will beam me and Christopher back with my orders."

"I wish we had something like that on this ship. It would have come in handy on Omicron Ceti Three.** Spock, bring Nurse Chapel up here with a medical tricorder. I want to see if this gentleman is human." Kirk paused, looking at the new arrival curiously. "I hope you don't mind., sir, but it's not every day that a stranger just beams onto our bridge."

"Oh, no, not at all, Captain. However, I can assure you that I am quite human."

"I'm glad you don't mind if we verify that." Kirk responded, watching as McCoy's head nurse entered the bridge. As she did, Rasmussen smiled again. To him, she was very beautiful. He watched her as she scanned him.

"He's human, sir."

"Thank you, Miss Chapel. Will you do the honors and escort our new arrival to guest quarters? Garrovick, accompany them. Make sure that our new arrival behaves himself."

*"The Corbomite Maneuver"

** "This Side of Paradise"


End file.
